Comments

good spot, 'centric.That's exactly how I feel a lot of the time, when I watch those of you with experience joke about it being the new R4L. (And yes, I do know it's a joke!)

Don't ever belittle this achievement. As I - and others, of course - have said before: it's almost the norm in this community. Outside, you're still in a vanishingly small percentage of the population.

Not doubting the achievement but knowing a few ironman finishers - fairly fast too - I wouldn't say they train any harder than serious marathoners or your average competitive cyclist - those are just the sports I know I'm sure there are lots of other examples.

I think it's a bit over the top, and I still think, being pretty much a non-athlete who has done 5 IM races, that most people could do it if they put their mind to it, and could afford to spend the time and money needed to train reasonably

some good points though

I also don't think that by saying it is do-able by most belittles the achievement, as most don't chose to, or can't be bothered

Any article like this could be considered 'over the top'. No point in writing about your sincere respect for something/someone if you don't express exactly WHY you felt moved to write it. I have seen (and written) pieces about the people you describe, too, Pops, and I'm sure anyone reading them who wasn't similarly moved might find it over the top.

Whenever people asked me about IM, then said 'I could never do that', I used to reply 'of course you could, with some training and hard work.' I've changed my mind on that now; an awful lot of people couldn't do IM because it's beyond them mentally. Whether that's nature, nurture or a combination of both, I can only speculate.

Whichever it is, IM does require patience, dedication, self discipline, mental toughness and world-class time management as well as a degree of physical fitness by raceday.

Pops, we all mix in circles where fitness is the norm. In my email address book I have lots of Ironmen, a few Double Ironmen, a triple IM, two Channel swimmers, several sub 3 marathonners, lots more marathonners, acouple of racing cyclists, a former Junior World Champ triathlete, a couple of Arch to Arc-ers, at least one member of the 100 Marathon Club and lots of ultra-runners. I doubt that my non-fitness-obsessed mates have anyone who falls into any of those categories (apart from me)

Crashie - I think that's what I was trying to say, thanks. Most people could physically do an IM if they had the time and the money, but many can't because they mentally couldn't or won't even think about it

It's definitely true that the same message is true of other sports, especially people like GUCR finshers and the like, who IMHO have done something far far harder (and way less snazzy) than IM.

However, like others I think it's important that although I also believe most people could do it if they set their mind to it and had a bit of luck with them, at the same time it is also true that starting is no guarantee of finishing, and sometimes the 'everyone can always do it' mentality might make it harder on those who, for whatever reason, have to DNF on the day, or miss cut-offs etc.

I agree with Crashie - does anyone remember that program that one of the main channels ran a few years ago? Basically they took a "Joe Blogs" and set them an awesome physical challenge - climb Everest, do MdS, do RAM etc. For 6 months they hot house trained them, with nutritionalist, sports pysch, physios, coaches, lab testing - you name it, they got full on support in every way possible - and yet some of them failed their challenge. Why? Because when it came down to it, they just did not have the right mental "stuff" to enable them to succeed, even though they had all the help and training possible beforehand. Was very interesting stuff.

When anyone tries to congratulate me on IM I brush them off because I know too many people who have already done it lots of times or done it double or triple or whatever, same with any ultras I have done, I never think they are far enough!

For me it emphasised that the cut off is very important in the definition of the achievement .

Also it underlines the need to respect the race , many , many good strong athletes have DNF'd forgetting this.

The opening salvo about toeing up to the start line and the description of the real people were what grabbed me , the last paragraph I could have lived without , but I must accept that I am a western european and prone (though not as much as some on this forum) to cynicsm.